Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A Flintstone Christmas Carol was very good. I loved the twist on one of the all-time great Christmas stories A Christmas Carol especially, however it doesn't quite make classic status for me. Is it as good as the TV show? No it isn't, but as well as putting the twist to Christmas Carol, it does make an effort to stick to the show's spirit. If anything, I wish this cartoon was a little longer, and one or two parts are a little uneven in pace, but that's all I have to say that's negative really. The animation is good, it has a colourful and charming feel to it. The music was also very nice, quite heart-warming and melodious, and the story is of course great. I loved the writing overall too, while there are some funny lines there are also some touching parts without feeling mawkish. The characters are still likable, and step into the Dickens characters' shoes with aplomb. It was a delight in itself seeing who was who. And the voice acting is fine, and like the special itself all the voice actors do make some effort to stick to the original voices which is no easy feat(especially in Mel Blanc's case). Overall though, it was a nice special and definitely worth re-visiting. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This is on Boomerang now as I write the review.I still have a hard time getting past the new voices, so that could be a part of it for me. They just aren't the same without the classic voice actors.The animation is actually quite nice. The new voice actors do a good job even though I am so used to the classic ones. They hold true to the story with a fun back-story.It's a cute re-tell, but is one that I wouldn't miss if I never saw it. If this is on & there isn't much else worth watching then have a go at it.

Apparently this is truly one of the most multi-faceted Flintstones cartoons to be found. I caught on to neither the need to change the nephew's name to Ned or that the black officer was from Flintstones Kids (well, I never watched that cartoon), but the continuity is truly rare.While the kid who wrapped Fred's presents may have resembled Arnold the paper boy from the sixties cartoon, he was never named such, nor was a co-worker identified as good ol' Joe Rockhead. Pity.What I couldn't help but notice was how Fred being called a scrooge and he took it as a compliment was some strange underlying representation of offensive slang being taken in a positive manner. And it would happen more than once.Wilma's behavior was a clunker. In the '77 Christmas program, in which Fred substitutes for Santa Claus who is ill (and a reworking of the Christmas episode from the sixties), Wilma and Mr. Slate and some very bratty children BLAME FRED, BLAME FRED, BLAME FRED! This is actually a strange holdover from the sixties cartoon (as is seen in Charlton comic books from the early seventies) in which Fred is overly self-centered and Wilma comes at him with a scowl and unkind word.One bit worth noting is in the '77 cartoon, Pebbles and Bamm Bamm are small, talking children (younger than they were in the Sally Struthers-Jay North Saturday morning cartoon), but now in the 90s, they are reduced to toddlers once more.Nevermind that somewhere in this decade, there would be the marriage of Pebbles and Bamm Bamm and the birth of the Flintstone-Rubble grandchildren in another program.The Christmas Carol as a play then redone into the cartoon as a real incident was entertaining, but Fred's sudden revelation (as callously noted by Wilma) was unexplained.Many of these attempts to do Flintstones, Muppets or Bugs Bunny versions of A Christmas Carol are odd to watch, as they tend to have no weak frail child like Tiny Tim in this age of precociousness (Tweety Pie was Bugs' and nephew Robin was the Muppets), nor do they have an overly intimidating creature like Scrooge. Donald Duck is cheery nephew Fred in the Disney cartoon version? Philo Quartz and nephew Ned show some thought was in this production. It could have been better, say, perhaps if Barney had been Jacob Marley and Slate had been Crachit.

When I first caught this movie on cable a few years ago, I expected it to be of the "Flintstones Meet The Jetsons" fare, or something equally par for the standard TV course. But I was happily surprised, and went out the next day to buy the videotape. True, the sub-plot of Fred ignoring work, friends, and family to rehearse his upcoming role as Scrooge for the Bedrock Community Players (and to give in to grandiose dreams of Broadrock Way) are of the typical fare we've been used to for a couple of decades now. But once the actual production gets underway, try to forget the rest because you will be as happily surprised as I. The voice talent seems to take their roles in "A Christmas Carol" very seriously, and most do a formidable job, handling the script with reverence and affection. Well, let's face it--what actor doesn't want to be in "A Christmas Carol" just once for the sheer fun of it? But Henry Corden is the surprising stand-out in this, proving that he can do more than just play straight man to Barney and Wilma's cutting one-liners. He treats this role as if he's been studying to play Scroogefor years. You get a hint of what's to come in the Ebonezer/Fanny/Ghost of Christmas Past scene, mixing a balance of fragile loss and forced bitterness very well indeed. By the time the Ghost of the Future shows up, Henry really sports his acting chops, and by the last few scenes he pulls off a terrific and moving performance, showing the delicate sadness, guilt, and the pivotal dichotomy of the fear of living and fear of dying that the character of Scrooge is really made of. OK, so it's not Albert Finney in "Scrooge"; but it's certainly not the kind of acting one expects of a Flintstones cartoon--well, not since the passing of Alan Reed, and the mass-production of Saturday morning Flinstones cookie-cutter shows. It's refreshing to see Henry Corden pull out all the stops and remind us that he is an actor, not just a Fred substitute. Although one wonders and mourns what Mel Blanc could have brought to this tour-de-force as Barney/Cragit...(sad sigh). During the curtain call, all pull back and fall into typical Hanna-Barbara "filler humor", but what has just happened should more than make up for those last 4 minutes. Overall, this is a wonderful addition to anyone's Scrooge collection, and should be picked up to enjoy while decking the Bedrock halls for years to come!